


Early Risers

by dirkharley



Category: Homestuck
Genre: F/M, Trans Female Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-18
Updated: 2014-06-18
Packaged: 2018-02-05 03:15:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,309
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1803289
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dirkharley/pseuds/dirkharley
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the morning, Rose has a word with Dave's older brother.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Early Risers

**Author's Note:**

> this is entirely self-indulgent and not very substantial at all. enjoy

At the crack of dawn, your eyes open. The room is dim, light trickling slowly in through the window. The heat trickles in faster. You find yourself detangling your limbs from Dave’s sheets, wincing a little at the awkward removal of sweat-sticking skin from skin. You pull down the edges of your shorts as you stand. Dave rolls towards the sudden loss of warmth, blearily looking towards you, still mostly asleep.

“I’ll be right back,” you whisper. You stop yourself from reaching out a hand to brush the hair from his face as he drifts back off with an incoherent mumble.

You stretch your arms far above your head. The shirt you wore to sleep rides up your stomach, and when you go to pull it down again, your hand brushes against your hips. The unfortunate byproduct of waking up as an adolescent stares back at you from between them. You think to wait a few minutes before actually leaving the room, instead checking your phone idly while it subsides.

Dave is fast to fall back into deep sleep, already sprawling across the space you had occupied. You smile. He makes an unconscious snuffling noise. You raise your eyebrows.

After a few minutes, you think it safe to venture out of his room. You know by now that it’s foolish to assume you’d be the only one awake. His brother keeps odd hours, and this wouldn’t be the first time you’d heard shuffling coming from the other side of Dave’s door this early in the day.

You meander into the bathroom, splashing some water onto your face. It helps with your own bleary vision. Now that it’s cleared up, you can vividly see the dark marks on the side of your neck and collar, no doubt a fraction of the number that appear on Dave. You appreciate them, but at this exact moment, they present you with a challenge. If Dave’s brother is, in fact, sitting out in the open this morning - well, you’ll need to have a word with him, you suppose.

It takes you just a few moments to rifle through your necessary cosmetics and make yourself presentable. You don’t bother going back to Dave’s room for a change of clothes. A quick application of lipstick and brushing of hair will suffice quite neatly, you think. You feel around your chest to adjust your bra, and - ah, right, you took it off before bed. Force of habit. You’ll go without for now, you decide, flicking the lightswitch off and exiting the bathroom in all your semi-made up glory.

The floor is unusually warm on your bare feet. Summer heat affects most things in the apartment similarly. As expected, Bro is seated at his computer in the living room, completely focused on the screen in front of him.

You clear your throat. He doesn’t move when he speaks.

“Sup Rose. You’re up early.”

You nod, even though he isn’t looking at you. “This is quite a normal time for me to rise, I assure you. But I still find myself baffled that no matter the hour, you’re awake as well.”

He shrugs. “Got work to do, can’t be assed to sleep through it.”

“That’s admirable,” you say, turning away from him to enter the kitchen. You retrieve a glass for yourself and fill it with water. Maybe you can avoid having this conversation today.

“Dave still asleep?” He asks. The question makes you stiffen, and you aren’t sure why. Perhaps he knows already, and the topic is unavoidable regardless. You turn to face the living room again.

“Of course. I’ve never known him to wake up any time before noon, if he can help it. Though I’ve thought about trying to change that, lately.”

You take a large gulp of your water. It cools you down somewhat.

“Be my guest. You’d probably have a better shot at it than I ever did.”

You nod. He certainly sounds like he knows more than he lets on. Dave did warn you about that, didn’t he.

You suppose it’s about time you came clean, then.

“I’d like to talk to you about something, if I may.” You place your glass down on an unobstructed area of the counter, locking your arms together across your chest.

Bro responds with a “hm”, which you take to mean you may continue.

“I appreciate the hospitality you’ve shown me this last week. I’ve enjoyed my stay here so far, as different as your living arrangements may be from my own home.”

“Don’t mention it,” he says nonchalantly, eyes still fixed on his computer screen.

You continue with a renewed sense of purpose, hoping that he will respond to you in some manner that isn’t just indifferent.

“As such, I don’t feel it’s right for me to keep secrets from you in your own home, though I’ve been assured that you are acutely aware of any goings-on that occur within these four walls. Because you surely already know, this seems foolish to say, but … ”

A pause. You need to reach for the right words.

“I suppose I am, belatedly, asking for your blessing. To court and bed your brother.”

Neither of you says anything until Bro breaks the silence.

“Come again?”

“I’m sleeping with Dave,” you say, the words tumbling out of your mouth in a way you didn’t think could ever happen. That was incredibly smooth of you.

“Huh.” Bro turns in his chair to look at you. “Had no idea.”

That was neither the response you were hoping for or expecting, but it’s better than nothing.

“I hope you don’t mind,” you start, though you aren’t sure where that sentence was headed. It’s not as though you have any intention of ceasing your activities. You just thought it would be the polite, mature thing to inform your host yourself lest he hold it against you for being … sneaky?

Alright, so that wasn’t the most well thought out plan you’ve ever hatched.

You shift your mouth into a determined line. He’s still looking straight at you.

“Can’t say I rightly care,” he says finally, shrugging his shoulders. “Do whatever your little hearts desire. Thanks for the advance warning.”

“Yeah," Dave says, in a croaky, still half-asleep voice. He appears in the entranceway to your left, rubbing his eyes underneath his shades.

"We’ll be sure to put a sock on the door so you can get in the way as much as possible.”

Bro notices the sheer number of hickeys visible on him at about the same moment as you do.

“Looks like you took a beating, little bro. Don’t want you getting rusty.”

In a second, he’s at the door, sword in hand. “Meet me on the roof in five.”

You turn your head to see Dave being accosted by his brother’s favourite puppet. He shouts and scrambles to escape its clutches, turning to you with a pleading look.

“Strifing at the break of dawn. That sounds quite pleasant, actually.”

He frowns at you, retrieving his sword from his strife deck. “If it sounds so nice to you, why don’t you do it instead. I’m not awake enough for this.”

“Oh no, I couldn’t get in the way of your sibling bonding. I’ve already inconvenienced the two of you enough as it is.” You shoot him a smile, attempting to make it as placid as possible.

He groans.

“Fuuuuuuck this. Okay. We’ll be done soon. And then I’m going back to bed.”

You watch as he sluggishly leaves the apartment, and instantly hear their banter drift in through the open windows.

When he comes back in, you doubt Dave will be getting to sleep again, but you’re prepared to keep him occupied enough not to realize.

You smile to yourself and head back into his room, the sound of clashing swords never too far behind.


End file.
